In this paper we discuss an interview-based study of the experiences of 27 first-generation Pakistani Muslim women in Britain who were looking for or undertaking paid work in the town of Reading. We explore the ways in which doing paid work enmeshes with the constitution of their gendered, racialised, and classed identities. These identities, we argue, are best understood in the context of an analysis that recognises the continuing importance of their relationship to a wider diasporic Pakistani/South Asian Islamic culture. We conclude that the place of paid work in the life of a 'British Pakistani Muslim woman' is a contested area in which there are a number of competing ideas about appropriate work which are strongly related to the class position and lifestage of the women. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd.

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United Kingdom gender relations Asian immigrant identity construction labor market